To the working poor, the Tories are the party of Scrooge

There’s still a strong public perception that Conservatives are not on the
side of the low-paid, writes David Skelton.

At least 1.2 million people have taken out payday loans to pay for Christmas expensesPhoto: Alamy

By David Skelton

6:15PM GMT 23 Dec 2013

The same discussion is probably raging in pubs around the country. What’s the best, most poignant Christmas song? There's a few songs that are on every list. Wham’s fantastic ode to lost love in Last Christmas, Shane MacGowan’s lyrical genius in Fairytale of New York, or pretty much anything on Phil Spector’s Christmas album.

But when I mention one little known song, a puzzled look comes over the countenance of almost everybody in the room. Merle Haggard is, after all, a singer who, for years, could barely get out of bed in the morning without gaining another platinum record in the States. In the UK, by contrast, his music hasn’t come close to troubling the charts. That’s rather a shame for us Brits.

It's no accident that he’s called “the poet of the common man” and some of his near poetry about his dust bowl, depression upbringing is worthy of Steinbeck (listen to Mama’s Hungry Eyes). Exactly 40 years ago this craggy iconoclast wrote a Christmas song, called If We Make It Through December which was devoid of the schmaltz that often accompanies country's festive offerings.

The song is about economic struggle at Christmas time and probably touches a nerve with millions. The subject of Haggard's song has been laid off from his factory job, “and their timings not the greatest in the world. Heaven knows I’ve been working hard. I wanted Christmas to be right for Daddy’s girl”. He talks about the worry that, “my little girl don’t understand why Daddy can’t afford no Christmas here”.

But there’s hope in the song. He’s got “plans of being in a warmer town come summer time… if we make it through December we’ll be fine”.

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The song’s beautiful and poignant. It’s an example of Haggard’s natural empathy. But it also speaks to the difficulties felt by millions of Britons, for whom making Christmas memorable for their children has been a stress and a struggle over the past few months – at least 1.2 million people have taken out payday loans to pay for Christmas expenses. Despite the welcome economic recovery, there are still too many Brits for whom getting by is a struggle. And there’s a perception that politicians don’t relate to this.

This was something acknowledged by former prime minister, Sir John Major, in his impressive speech to the press gallery a few weeks ago. Major talked about the “silent have-nots”:

"If unemployed, they seek work; if employed, they work hard to hang on to their jobs. And how do I know about these people? Because I grew up with them. They were my neighbours, the silent have-nots… They are not high-fliers, not financially secure. They're the dignified poor or near-poor and to the shame of decades of politicians – and I include myself in this – there are still millions and millions of them… For too many of these people a room with a view is 30 stories up and every day they wake up hoping that the lift will work and that the graffiti on the walls won't be too vile."

While Labour politicians have done little or nothing to help the working poor, there’s still a strong public perception that Conservatives are not on the side of the low-paid. Conservatives would, rightly, point out that they have lifted the poorest out of tax altogether and that their education and welfare reforms are specifically aimed at helping the poorest. But research for Lord Ashcroft found that only 9 per cent of voters thought that Conservatives best represented the low-paid in the public sector and only 14 per cent the low-paid in the private sector (the figures for Labour are 55 per cent and 44 per cent). Three quarters of voters still think that the party is the party of the rich.

Indeed, when some Conservatives talk about aspiration, it’s often the language of “escape” – of the lucky few getting out of their community, without emphasising the importance that people give to place, continuity and security. But the party needs to consider what they can offer for those who work hard but either don’t want to or can’t leave their communities or become multi-millionaires.

While Tories should be speaking for the entrepreneurs, they should also be speaking for those who aspire to a better life for their family without leaving their community. Instead aspiration can mean owning their own home, a decent school for their children, one or two foreign holidays a year and a good Christmas for their kids. To use the phrase that most people identified with in a recent You Gov poll, “ordinary working people trying to get on in life”.

If Conservatives want to be seen as helping these people, they must be prepared to act around housing and wages. There are some 1.8 million households stuck on the housing waiting list and, according to Shelter, over 2 million people find their rent or mortgage a constant struggle or are having difficulty keeping up with payments. Low income households pay around a third of their income in rent and this rises up to half in some London boroughs. This illustrates why housebuilding and home ownership is so important and why Conservatives should be happy to allow local authorities to build more social housing, as long as it comes with a fast track to right to buy.

As rent and the cost of other essentials have surged upwards over the past decade, wages have simply failed to keep up with prices. And despite Ed Milband’s rhetoric, this isn’t a new development – GDP rose by 11 per cent in the 5 years to 2008 but real incomes stagnated. Raising skills and productivity is the only way to raise wages in the long-term, but the government should address the fact that the minimum wage is worth £1000 less than it was in 2008 after inflation has been taken into account. That’s why Conservatives should consider ways to boost the minimum wage, while cutting employers’ taxes at the same time.

Conservatives have to show that they have something to offer everybody in society. They should be able to relate to the narrator in Haggard’s song, who works hard for his family with little reward. And they should remember the words of John Major that, “we Conservatives shouldn't be afraid to show that we have a heart and a social conscience…If we do we might not only regain seats that are at present no-go areas for Conservatives, but far more importantly, we might transform lives as a result".

David Skelton is the founder of Renewal, a new campaign group aiming to broaden the appeal of the Conservative Party to working- class and ethnic-minority voters